The EconomistJanuary 30th 2021 China 332 role advocating for workers’ rights. They
achieved some notable victories. A strike at
a Citizen watch factory in Guangdong prov-
ince in 2011 led to collective bargaining.
Managers also agreed to cough up 70% of
overtime payments that had been in ar-
rears for five years. In 2015 workers at
Guangdong’s Lide shoe factory forced the
company to pay several million yuan in so-
cial-insurance contribution arrears. Then,
in 2015, the Party clamped down on all civil-
society groups.
Another crackdown came in 2018 when
workers at Jasic, a welding factory in
Shenzhen, tried to form a worker-led un-
ion and register it with the federation. The
workers were fired. Weeks later, police ar-
rested dozens of workers and students
from across the country for protesting in
support of the union.
So is there any chance the reforms can
do more to protect workers? Union ranks
have swelled. In 2015-16, 30m migrant
workers joined. The acftunow has more
than 390m members, including 6.5m from
the eight priority groups. And according to
clb, some unions have devoted more re-
sources to helping workers with legal ad-
vice. Sometimes the local union federation
stands up for workers, even when the un-
ion inside the company does not. Between
2016 and early 2019 the acftusays it helped
more than 5m migrant workers secure 53bn
yuan ($8.2bn) in overdue wages.
Yet it remains distant from many work-
ers. Of 350 delivery workers interviewed by
Jenny Chan of Hong Kong Polytechnic Uni-
versity, not one knew what the federation
does. In the decade before China’s clamp-
down on labour activism in 2015, the acftu
engaged directly with workers, even ex-
perimenting with collective bargaining
and running training sessions for workers
in their factories. Now, says Mr Chan, as the
party reasserts its dominance throughout
society, union training for workers often
happens at local “party-masses service
centres”. It involves telling workers not to
strike or protest and pointing them to-
wards mediation or arbitration if they have
gripes. Hotlines have also been set up.
“Sometimes it does work for workers,”
says Eli Friedman of Cornell University. “If
you look at the final decisions reached
through arbitration or litigation, they tend
to favour workers over employers. But
there are all kinds of obstacles that prevent
this course from being effective; most im-
portant, it takes a lot of time.” Most workers
do not have time or money to invest in
court proceedings or arbitration.
The party is keen to prevent people from
banding together. “If you have a group of 50
workers from some workplace and they go
and say that the boss hasn’t been paying
them, the first thing the union tries to do is
chop it up into 50 individual cases,” says Mr
Friedman. In 2019 more than 2.1m disputes
werehandledthrougharbitration,involv-
ing2.4mworkers.
For those like Mr Liu, the rider for
Ele.me, union membership offers little
hopethatgruellingworkconditionswill
soonimprove.Ridersareoftenhiredby
subcontractors who force them to take
riskstodeliverontime,orrisknotgetting
paid.Inthepasttwoyearsthousandsof
couriersacrossChinahavebeeninjuredor
killedinaccidents,accordingtoclb. Mr
Friedmanis“extremelypessimistic”that
unionreformswillhelpgigworkers.Even
iftheunionwantedtorepresentthedeliv-
ery workers in collective bargaining, it
wouldnotbeabletobecause,legally,most
couriersareindependentcontractors,not
employees.Asinsomanycountries,the
people who bike hot lunches to office
workersliveprecariously. 7W
hen hiba bourouqiawon a Chinese
government scholarship to study in-
ternational trade, she was “full of hope, full
of life”. Now, however, “I just sit and cry,”
says the 19-year-old Moroccan. China’s
strict quarantine measures have forced her
to study remotely from her home near
Casablanca. Ms Bourouqia considered giv-
ing up and applying for a Moroccan univer-
sity. But she says the academic standards
are not up to China’s, so she is persevering.
Around the world the dreams of manyinternational students have been shattered
by the pandemic. The virus has also dam-
aged China’s hopes to continue as a major
destination for international students. In
2019 it was third globally, receiving almost
500,000 foreign students, just behind Brit-
ain, though still only half the number go-
ing to America. Now, however, China’s
tough border controls have made it almost
impossible for overseas students to enter
the country. Many are furious.
Africa has been a big target of Chinese
efforts to enhance its global “soft power”.
More than 80,000 Africans were studying
there before the pandemic struck. China
has surpassed America (47,000) and Brit-
ain (29,000) as the destination of choice for
African students and is now closing on the
traditional frontrunner, France (112,000).
The Chinese government has showered the
continent with bursaries. One education
charity estimates that 43% of all scholar-
ships to sub-Saharan Africa are provided by
the Chinese government.
Unlike Western students, who usually
study in China for a year at most, many Af-
ricans live from enrolment to graduation
on campus. And for all China’s largesse
with scholarships, about 85% of them are
self-funded, so they feel heavily invested.
They also worry about job prospects.
“Would you employ a person who did civil
engineering online?” asks Davine, a third-
year undergraduate who is stuck in his
home country, Zimbabwe.
Many African students have joined an
international social-media campaign,
#TakeUsBackToChina. It accuses China of
ignoring their pleas to be allowed back,
even though they are prepared to take nec-
essary tests for covid-19 and submit to
quarantine. They have written a petition
saying they cannot continue to pay fees for
poor online lessons that often require
them to be up in the middle of their night.
The grievances of African students have
been compounded by a spate of racist inci-
dents in China early last year. In the south-
ern city of Guangzhou, dozens of Africans,
including students, were evicted from
their homes after several Nigerians tested
positive for covid-19.
But in spite of the current problems
China’s universities are likely to keep at-
tracting Africans. A year at a leading Chi-
nese college, many of which are rising up
global league tables, costs no more than
$4,000 in fees, one-tenth of the cost in Eu-
rope or America. Mostapha El-Salamony,
an Egyptian doctoral student in aero-
dynamics at Peking University, says it is
also easier to gain admission to Chinese
universities and, in normal times, to se-
cure a visa. He says he works with top-class
scientists and equipment, and most class-
es for international students are taught in
English. Says Ms Bourouqia, “China was
and still is the best choice.” 7The pandemic disrupts China’s rise as a
destination for foreign scholarsAfrican studentsSchool’s out
Happier times in Chongqing